Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese - fr david j randolphhttp://www.antiochian.org/taxonomy/term/1410/0
en-USPostmodern Young People and the Liturgy http://www.antiochian.org/content/postmodern-young-people-and-liturgy
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Randolph, Fr. David J. </div>
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<span class="date-display-single">01/2012</span> </div>
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<!--paging_filter--><p><em><span class="inline inline-left"><img src="http://www.antiochian.org/sites/default/files/images/picture_1_1.img_assist_custom-204x299.png" alt="" title="" class="image image-img_assist_custom-204x299 image-img_assist_custom" width="204" height="299" /></span>By V. Rev. Fr. David J. Randolph</em></p>
<p><em>From the Word magazine, January, 2012</em></p>
<p>The term postmodern culture is used&nbsp;in many different ways, and cannot be&nbsp;grasped except in contrast to its predecessor, modernism, to which it is in reaction. Modernism displayed a high level&nbsp;of confidence in the abilities of humanity.&nbsp;Rooted in the Enlightenment, modernists&nbsp;attempted to rid themselves of the mystery of religion and things spiritual so as to&nbsp;focus purely on the empirical facts of science. Some believed that humanity could&nbsp;build a perfect society founded on human&nbsp;principles and structures. The movement&nbsp;was idealistic, and its breakdown was painful to the generation that experienced it.</p>
<p>This reaction took different forms. For many&nbsp;people of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, pop culture&nbsp;became a kind of rebellious religiosity. Many were&nbsp;from broken families, and they concluded that all&nbsp;commitments are fragile. Some also experimented with different “spiritualities,” having a distinct&nbsp;distaste for “institutional religion.” Theirs was a&nbsp;time of political turmoil, growing up amid the&nbsp;anxiety of the cold war, and through the period of&nbsp;Vietnam, Desert Storm, and the war in Iraq. The&nbsp;results for many were confusion, depression, and&nbsp;loneliness.</p>
<p>Postmodernism is the cultural reaction to the&nbsp;perceived failures of modernism. Youth ministers&nbsp;today face five challenges related to the postmodern stance.</p>
<p><strong>First, postmodern young people give&nbsp;primacy to personal experience.</strong></p>
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<p>Logic and arguments do not work with youth&nbsp;now, as they did in the earlier period. If we wish&nbsp;to reach them, we must provide meaningful, engaging experience of Christ. This suggests a need&nbsp;for meaningful relations and personal contact&nbsp;with the Christian tradition. Liturgy can provide&nbsp;a balance that meets both the need for personal&nbsp;encounter and challenges youth to move into the&nbsp;fullness of community life.</p>
<p><strong>Second, this generation prefers authenticity to relevance.&nbsp;</strong>The term postmodern culture is used&nbsp;in many different ways, and cannot be&nbsp;grasped except in contrast to its predecessor, modernism, to which it is in reaction. Modernism displayed a high level&nbsp;of confidence in the abilities of humanity.&nbsp;Postmoderns are hungry for authenticity, for personal and meaningful connections with sources of&nbsp;deep and substantial wisdom. Our Eucharistic liturgy holds primacy of place in our lives as Orthodox; it is the source and summit of our faith, and&nbsp;as such provides the heart of our theology and&nbsp;spiritual knowledge. There is no more authentic&nbsp;mode of existence, or deeper source of meaning&nbsp;in the universe, than the life-giving, formative encounter with the Trinity in the Eucharist. It can&nbsp;hold primacy of place in the lives of postmodern&nbsp;young people as well.</p>
<p><strong>Third, postmodern young people&nbsp;put great trust in people’s authentic stories, though not in claims of overarching narratives.</strong></p>
<p>Therefore, they will hear and believe personal&nbsp;witness rather than assertions of an objective and&nbsp;exclusive Truth. Although this distrust often leads&nbsp;to a relativistic agnosticism, it is in fact another&nbsp;point of contact for liturgy and Christian education. For example, the story of salvation history,&nbsp;proclaimed as God’s own Word to us, speaks of&nbsp;God’s action in different peoples and cultures&nbsp;throughout history. Our liturgical catechesis,&nbsp;homilies, and other forms of evangelization can&nbsp;speak to the heart of this generation by subtly&nbsp;weaving young people’s life stories into the story&nbsp;of God’s love for us. Liturgies of the Word, both&nbsp;inside and outside of Divine Liturgy, could emphasize this connection.</p>
<p><strong>Fourth, as opposed to the modern&nbsp;scientific and objective outlook,&nbsp;postmodern young people display a surprising openness to personal, spiritual,&nbsp;and mystical experiences.</strong>&nbsp;</p>
<p>This can take the form of interest in the sacraments, devotions, and other ascetical practices as&nbsp;new ways to pray (provided they’re not gimmicky&nbsp;or transparently trying to be relevant), and in authentic, heartfelt communal worship.&nbsp;Unfortunately, young people often seek to&nbsp;fulfill their desire for such experiences in risky&nbsp;behavior or in non-Christian religious traditions.</p>
<p>They also seek such experiences in Protestant&nbsp;mega-churches that cater to individual experiences of God.</p>
<p><strong>Finally, because of their distrust in&nbsp;truth-claims and their tendencies to&nbsp;relativism, this generation hungers for&nbsp;clarity and solid answers to life’s problems.</strong></p>
<p>Our heritage has much to offer: liturgy is indeed&nbsp;the ultimate in spiritual and mystical experiences,&nbsp;the mystery in which we commune with the Holy&nbsp;One. With our long history and rich, deep traditions, we can offer that kind of solidity. The presence of the Church throughout two millennia can&nbsp;speak volumes to this generation, provided that&nbsp;the tradition is presented as active and alive.&nbsp;Youth ministry and Christian education can&nbsp;provide stability through a liturgical catechesis&nbsp;that cultivates a liturgical spirituality or sacramental view of life, helping young people find the&nbsp;presence of God in all of creation.</p>
<p>An apologist like C.S. Lewis could easily have&nbsp;persuaded a young person from the modern period, like myself, to live the Christian life, through&nbsp;sound logic and argumentation. In this view of&nbsp;things, faith was something to which one could&nbsp;be led by reason, and, once persuaded, there was&nbsp;no longer reason to argue. It was true or false:&nbsp;you simply gave assent with your mind, and you&nbsp;followed through with the rest of life.</p>
<p>In contrast, the postmodern young person&nbsp;needs to experience God before he or she will believe that God is real. You can argue and reason&nbsp;all you like, but the response will be the same:&nbsp;“That might work for you, but not for me.” Instead, what works with this generation are encounters with Christ.</p>
<p>The postmodern young person’s desire for&nbsp;authenticity, mystical experience, meaning, and&nbsp;a sense of awe all suggest his or her predisposition to ritual in general. Orthodox educators can&nbsp;use Scripture and the teaching and practices of&nbsp;the Church in creative ways that do not violate&nbsp;the spirit of the Tradition to help connect a young&nbsp;person’s experiences of Christ to becoming part&nbsp;of the Body of Christ in daily life. The late Father&nbsp;Alexander Schmemann said, “It is in the liturgy&nbsp;that the sources of faith – the Bible and tradition&nbsp;– become a living reality” (“Theology and Liturgical Tradition,” in Massey Shepherd, ed., Worship&nbsp;in Scripture and Tradition, p. 166). In fact, liturgy enacts revelation in such a way that those&nbsp;who “do” liturgy also “do” theology (Christology,&nbsp;pneumatology, theological anthropology, and ecclesiology). Liturgy is where the Tradition of the&nbsp;church is enacted and lived. So if today’s young&nbsp;people are looking for meaning, liturgy is indeed&nbsp;the place to find it – where we live the Way, the&nbsp;Truth, and the Life.</p>
<p>Young people need to understand that conversion is a lifelong process, and liturgy facilitates&nbsp;that conversion. We need to help them grasp this&nbsp;liturgical asceticism, or metanoia (conversion),&nbsp;that is, the process by which a baptized person,&nbsp;through regular participation in liturgy, receives&nbsp;the necessary formation to order one’s life habitually such that one comes to know and experience&nbsp;God in one’s life. It is the discipline required for&nbsp;our theosis (deification). Baptized persons experience the Paschal Mystery and are transformed&nbsp;and strengthened by it to love their neighbor as&nbsp;themselves. As part of the Body of Christ, they&nbsp;enter into the divine mutual participation, and&nbsp;reflect the image and likeness of the Trinity. In&nbsp;sum, liturgical asceticism is the Christian life,&nbsp;lived through, in, and with Christ and his Body,&nbsp;the Church.</p>
<p>Young people may grasp the beauty of vespers,&nbsp;orthros, the hours of prayer and divine liturgy, and&nbsp;discover a hunger to participate in them. We want&nbsp;to do what we can to give them a positive understanding of the meaning of these services. From&nbsp;an Orthodox perspective, liturgy, like the Church&nbsp;itself, is an icon of Christ (who, in turn, is the icon&nbsp;of the Father).</p>
<p>Young people must grasp that liturgy slowly&nbsp;transforms us. Through the Eucharist, we come&nbsp;not simply to the knowledge of God, but to the&nbsp;living God. We are empowered to live as disciples&nbsp;in the world. We are perfected over time by the&nbsp;work of grace through contact with the Trinity in&nbsp;liturgy, and in this way we are able to live as Christian disciples. Young people need to learn to live&nbsp;the liturgy in their daily lives in practical ways,&nbsp;dealing with moral and other issues common to&nbsp;their age group.</p>
<p>We no longer live in a “churched” culture. In&nbsp;contrast to the church culture of the 50s, say, the&nbsp;values of the church are not those of society. Far&nbsp;too many people do not seek out the Church on&nbsp;their own initiative. Moreover, the Church, the&nbsp;sacraments, its teachings and practices, life as a&nbsp;koinonia, a communion of love – these things are&nbsp;not understood generally; our society as a whole&nbsp;has no knowledge of life in and as the Church. We&nbsp;live in a society that focuses on one’s individual&nbsp;life, independent of others. This is true not only of&nbsp;adolescents, but also their parents.</p>
<p>The “mega-church” is one response from Protestant Christians to our unchurched society. We&nbsp;should note that most attendees at these mega-&nbsp;churches (eighty-two percent) come at the invitation of a friend, family member, or co-worker.&nbsp;While we might fault these mega-churches for a&nbsp;number of things, they are clearly addressing the&nbsp;felt needs of the post-modern generation: Sixty-two percent of attendees said that they experienced much spiritual growth. This should be a&nbsp;wake-up call for us as Orthodox educators.</p>
<p>To meet post-modern young people where they&nbsp;are, as educators we need to present the Church&nbsp;as a living organism that offers Truth without&nbsp;compromise and sacraments in which they may&nbsp;meet God. Most of all, young people need to grasp&nbsp;the beauty, the richness, the majesty and the practical reality of the Divine Liturgy in their lives.</p>
<p><em>(This article was adapted from a presentation at the Education Forum at the Antiochian Village.)</em></p>
<p>V. Rev. Fr. David J. Randolph</p>
<p>Pastor, Christ the Savior Antiochian Orthodox Church</p>
<p>Anderson, South Carolina</p>
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articlefr david j randolphpostmodernismyouthTue, 10 Jan 2012 01:55:45 +0000vnieuwsma27406 at http://www.antiochian.org